Male Suicide Rates Massively Increase

What if I told you that the percentage of men taking their own lives had, in the past fifteen years, soared to unprecedented heights, increasing 62% faster than the percentage of women doing the same?

According to a recent report by the CDC detailing changes in suicide rates from 1999 to 2014, that is precisely the case. Of course, if you read only media outlets obsessed with “war on women” talking points, you could be forgiven for missing it. “Suicide Rates Climb In U.S., Especially Among Adolescent Girls” reads an NPR headline, in an article that goes on to focus almost exclusively on the fairer (and less suicidally depressed) sex. The article even includes a graph of female suicides, declaring “Women’s Suicide Rates Increase For All Age Groups Under 75,” while neglecting to include the same information for men. Had it been included, it would have shown even larger numbers.

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The CDC report states that the female suicide rate has increased from 4.0 women per 100,000 in 1999 to 5.8 in 2014. Meanwhile the male suicide rate, already at 17.8 per 100,00 in 1999, has increased to 20.8 in 2014. In other words, female suicide rates have increased by 1.8 women out of 100,000, while men’s have increased by 2.9 — 62% faster!

Perversely, the fact that men were already killing themselves at such high rates compared to women in 1999 has been used as pretext to ignore the fact that their suicide rates continue to climb faster. These increases are relatively small as a percentage of what the figure already was, which gives journalists cover to turn a primarily male crisis into grist for more of the usual hand-wringing about the plight of women. No doubt progressive media would pick up on it if there were similar increases among politically favored identity groups historically known for high rates of suicide, such as gays and transgenders.

The CDC report provides us with hard statistics that should be a shocking wake up call to the news organizations of the west that there is a huge problem with male suicide that needs to be addressed. Unfortunately, it seems that this “revelation” will not happen any time soon.

Jack Hadfield is a student at Warwick Univeristy and a regular contributor to Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter here: @ToryBastard_.